Software agents are often loaded into servers to gather information about electronic components operating in the server. This information is transmitted to another electronic device, such as an external management server, so a user can manage and diagnose the server. A separate software agent is often required for each of the server components that are managed.
Software agents can provide information and some control over device operation, but often require a Network Interface Card (NIC) on the server to be dedicated to communicate this information to the external management server. In order to communicate with the external management server, the software agents consume memory and processing resources on the managed server and can create software issues with the operating system (OS).